The Black Shumen: The Breed of the Byzantines

[Alex_Zurago]

After doing some research on Roman and Byzantine Roman Chicken Breeds I found the Black Shumen, a rare breed used by Byzantine Romans and Bulgarians. Lets say as a hypothetical I wanted to produce a modern Roman gamefowl and I crossed it to the Roman Pit game the OEG and their dual purpose, the Dorking. It appears the Black Shumen is meant to have longer Slate or blue legs than the other two which have shorter white legs. Do the legs of this cock look slate or blue and how would one get the proper legs onto such a cross? Thank you.

 

[Perris]

they look just like Barbezieux, bar the earlobe colour (white on a Barby), in particular they have slate legs, so you could probably take a shortcut using that breed. Here are mine for comparison

 

[Alex_Zurago]

they look just like Barbezieux, bar the earlobe colour (white on a Barby), in particular they have slate legs, so you could probably take a shortcut using that breed. Here are mine for comparison
View attachment 2776186View attachment 2776187

Personally I'd like to only use direct Roman breeds. I do know that they were crossed with RIRs and Black Minorcas but that was after 1453 with the fall of Constantinople